From Reuters
December 3 2002
HANOI -- "The Quiet American," a movie that was almost not
released in the United States, is being warmly welcomed by
communist Vietnam, which praises it as an accurate portrayal
of early American involvement in Indochina.
The Southeast Asian country has not been as happy about
other Hollywood flicks, condemning the portrayal of the
Vietnam War in Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" and
particularly the role played by Vietnamese actor Don Duong,
who has been branded a traitor.
But the Phillip Noyce adaptation of Graham Greene's 1955
book that was partly shot in Vietnam and stars Michael Caine
and Brendan Fraser has been given the green light.
"Senior leaders of the Culture and Information Ministry have
watched the film and agreed for it to be shown widely in
Vietnam," Nguyen Van Tinh, deputy director of the
International Relations Department of the culture and
information office was quoted as saying in Monday's Thanh
Nien (Young People) newspaper.
Noyce, whose credits include "The Bone Collector," "Patriot
Games" and "The Saint," is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on
Dec. 16 for the local premiere, according to the newspaper.
The film is set in the early 1950s and depicts a country
wracked by war as collapsing French colonial rule gives way
to increasing U.S. involvement on what was seen as a front
line against communism.
An earlier movie adaptation in 1958 fudged the ending to
make it acceptable to U.S. audiences, while the remake is
more faithful to the book.
Greene, who died in 1991, had been closely watched by the
FBI, who tagged him as anti-American for his meetings with
people such as Cuba's Fidel Castro.